Farid N. Ghadry

Farid N. Ghadry (also Farid al-Ghadry and Frank Ghadry) is co-founder and current president of the Reform Party of Syria (RPS), a "'US-based opposition party' of pro-democracy Syrians", and the president of the Syrian Democratic Coalition. 

Ghadry was born in Syria and, in 1964, at the age of 8, emigrated to Lebanon with his family. Ghadry came to the United States in 1975. 

Described as a "discredited businessman from Virginia" who is "Syria’s version of Ahmad Chalabi" by Robert Dreyfuss April 17, 2006, in The American Prospect, Ghadry is "a secular, pro-democracy Sunni from a majority-Sunni country. He is charming and articulate, enjoys driving his kids to soccer practice, and favors a Syrian peace with Israel," Elizabeth Eaves wrote February 7, 2005, in Slate. When Eaves asked Ghadry "why he started the Reform Party of Syria, he said that he and his wife had reached a comfortable point in their lives, with their children nearly grown, and decided that they wanted to give something back. Who wouldn't find such a philanthropic impulse appealing? She joined the board of a children's hospital, and he decided to overthrow a government."

Ghadry is a member of AIPAC. On May 15, 2003, Eli J. Lake wrote in The National Review: "His organization is only now getting off the ground," and "a Syrian who belongs to one of Israel's main lobbying groups is not exactly a strong political candidate in a country that remains one of the most rabidly anti-Israel in the region. As Ghadry himself admits, 'The Syrians are not ready for someone who wants to make peace with Israel.'"

Being Chalabi
In January 2006, Volker Perthes, Director of the Berlin-based German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told ABC News' Leela Jacinto that "Analysts also warn that the U.S. experience in Iraq is adversely affecting U.S.-based Syrian exiles considered too close to Washington neoconservative circles," which includes Farid Ghadry. 

"Ghadry wants to be the Chalabi of Syria," Perthes said. "Chalabi is a role model for Ghadry." 

"But it's the very role model that makes Ghadry a suspicious opposition figure for his European and Islamic counterparts," Jacinto wrote. "Given what is widely seen in the Middle East and Europe as the U.S. debacle in Iraq, opposition figures ... are at pains to stress their distance from Washington." 

Just like Chalabi has addressed the Knesset several times, as of 27 May 2007, Ghadry has been invited to address the Israeli Knesset.

Profiles
According to his cached biography at ReformSyria.org, Farid Ghadry "graduated from the American University in Washington DC in 1979 with a degree in Finance and Marketing. He worked at EG&G, Intertech, Inc., a subsidiary of EG&G, Inc., a Fortune 500 U.S. defense contractor, for two years before starting his own business in 1983 called International TechGroup, Inc."

Note: EG&G Inc., an architectural and engineering company, was sold to URS Corp. in August 2002. See URS Corp. website for more company information.

Ghadry, "serial entrepreneur"
"Frank" Ghadry launched his "Washington-based defense contracting business [in 1983] to write software that would allow the U.S. Navy to digitize the paperwork in aircraft carriers, letting them go a couple of knots faster and save millions of dollars in fuel costs with the extra weight removed," BizForward reported in March 2000. Ghadry sold this business in 1989. 

In 1990, described in BizForward as "Lebanese-born" Frank Ghadry, Ghadry "decided to launch a business in Russia, buying antiquated Soviet computers and stripping them for the gold plating Soviet engineers used instead of nickel." "The company then recycled the gold and other precious metals in the West, the first time the Russian government had issued an export license for gold. But the lucrative venture soon caught the eye of Russia's less savory business types" and, in 1992, Ghadry and his partners left the country.

"Ghadry owned Hannibal's Coffee Co., a chain of American coffee shops that went bankrupt in 1996." 

Described in December 2000 as a "serial entrepreneur" by freelance writer Janet Gross, "Frank Ghadry" founded Bizee.com in April 1999, "with modest revenues of $130,000", as his eighth business.

Ghadry's Rockville, Maryland, company startup was self-financed, with other funding coming "from an angel and an international fund; so far, less than $1 million has been raised," Gross wrote. Ghadry had "previously built multimillion-dollar companies in telecommunications, media, recycling, food and other industries."

More on Ghadry
Writing on the SHRC Discussion Boards, member TheFoxesOfSyria wrote June 26, 2006, that "Frank Ghadry, is the Americanized-name of Farid Ghadry. Actually, a simple search on google shows that in business publications, he claimed that he is Lebanese-born. At the least, he allowed the publication [to publish] that he is Lebanese-born and did not mind that. All went well till his nTH business went bust (as usual - as expected), then he realized that 9/11 is a gold opportunity to seek to use his connections as a defense contractor and lobbyist along with the Pseudo-Maronite Lobby in DC such as Pipes, Abdelnoor and company to capitalize on the NYC attacks and alienate the only true Syrian opposition (the Islamists). This man knows nothing about Syria beside what he hears second-hand. Everyone knows that he is not part of the Syrian society in DC."

Syrian Democratic Coalition
The Syrian Democratic Coalition was launched by Ghadry in a November 17, 2003, press conference held at the National Press Club. Ghadry, accompanied by former Lebanese General Lebanese Michel Aoun, announced that the group was "being financed by Syrian businessmen."&mdash;Geopolitique.com.

"Syria may become America's 53rd state, if Farid Ghadry's NGO, the Reform Party of Syria rushes through that opened door. Ghadry is a Syrian Christian who worked for EG & G, a Department of Defense contractor. EG & G assisted in the development and testing of nuclear weapons and in many of the US military's top secret atomic projects. Ghadry's Reform Party coordinates with the Syrian National Council, and transmits Radio Free Syria from Cyprus and Germany to destabilize Syria. The CIA and Mossad have long used Kurds to target nations in the region," Trish Schuh wrote in CounterPunch, November 18, 2005.

The neo-con connection
"It seemed like a match made in neocon heaven," Eli J. Lake wrote May 15, 2003, in The New Republic Online. "Less than one week after the United States accused Syria of allowing terrorists to enter Iraq and Saddam Hussein's henchmen to leave it, Farid Ghadry informally unveiled his Reform Party of Syria. He used the occasion of the American Enterprise Institute's second to last weekly briefing on Iraq&mdash;a series the institute organized to coincide with the war&mdash;to go public with his opposition efforts. Ghadry—who plans to announce a Syrian government in exile in the coming months—asked the panel of Washington hawks, from the audience, the question on everyone's mind: 'What about regime change for Syria?'"

H.D.S. Greenway wrote in a December 13, 2005, Boston Globe editorial that his "heart sank" when he "read that Syrian exile Farid Ghadry met recently with Ahmed Chalabi, Iraq's deputy prime minister, in a Washington suburb. Ghadry heads something called the Syrian Reform Party. The party was formed three years ago, and is made up almost entirely of exiles, such as Ghadry, who left Syria when he was 10. 'Ahmed paved the way in Iraq for what we want to do in Syria,' Ghadry told The Wall Street Journal.

"The real heart-sinker," Greenway wrote, "was that the two met in the living room of Richard Perle, whom George Packer, author of The Assassins' Gate, calls the 'impresario of the neo-cons'. Perle was among the leading intellectual lights urging forceful regime change in Iraq."

"As for Chalabi, he is often accused of seducing the administration with false intelligence into invading Iraq. But the fact is that the Bush administration desperately wanted to be seduced. If you are feeling charitable, you can say that Chalabi, having lived in exile for so many years, may just have been out of touch with the real situation in Iraq. But one suspects that Farid Ghadry may be no better informed about his homeland than was Chalabi," Greenway wrote.

Bush-Cheney '04 Inc. Endorsement
As an October 23, 2004, signatory for the Middle Eastern American National Conference (MENAC) endorsement of President George W. Bush for a second term in office, Farid Ghadry of Maryland identified himself as an "Arab Syrian American". 

MENAC is "a coalition of Americans of Middle East descent who hail from various religious and ethnic backgrounds including: Arab, Maronites, ChaldoAssyrian, Persian, African, Copt, Berber, Sunni, Shiite, Orthodox, Melkite, Syriac, Jews, Druze, Lebanese, Iraqi, Syrian, Egyptian, Libyan, Sudanese, Palestinian, Jordanian, Algerian, Yemeni, Arabian, Kuwaiti, Afghani, Iranian, Turk, Moroccan, Mauritanian, Ethiopian, and others." 

Ammar Abdulhamid, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, and a Fellow at the International Institute for Modern Letters, in Las Vegas, responded:


 * "Farid Ghadry and Mohammed Aljbaili are Syrian citizens and, as such, they have every right to voice their opposition to the Syrian regime. Still, I am new here, as you all know, so I am not so privy as to the exact nature of the relations between the SNC and RFP, so I am not really sure how the 'exclusion' took place. Still, and from a tactical perspective, I think the exclusion of Ghadri and Jbaili was necessary in order to appeal to a broader spectrum of figures from the internal opposition.


 * "For regardless of the actual merits of these figures and their legitimate right to oppose, the public image they have in the country is less than flattering. I doubt we could have gotten much support from the Syrian opposition if they were on board, at least not this stage. We should keep our minds open for the future. If Ghadri and Jbaili should manage to polish their public image with the Syrian people, their inclusion may not [be] as problematic in the future."

Other posters to Abdulhamid's Amarji Blog commented:


 * "Was it an attempt to isolate them or not to associate this gathering with the 'American Horse' people like Ghadry is riding on or????????"


 * "Well since Ghadri may be involved with the corrupt and militant zionist Abramoff it was a good thing that Ghadri was'nt there."


 * "I Agree. Ghadri & company should be exposed. and the national free oppositions should be promoted .."

Nehad Ismail, a "UK-based commentator on Middle East Affairs", stated March 31, 2006: "Ghadry, who has been described by Syrians as 'the Syrian version of Ahmed Chalabi' ... is now in disfavor both in Iraq and the USA. Ghadry's group is looked upon with suspicion due to its links with the USA."

As recently as October 8, 2006, syrian auther commented at Free-Syria.com that National Salvation Front (NSF) leading members Abdel Halim Khaddam and Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni "are smart to champion the Kurdish demand for full citizenship, just as they are smart to condemn Farid Ghadry’s politics of bigotry and his effort to turn Syrians against their fellow Alawis." Note: The Alawites are a Syrian minority. 

Readying for (U.S.) Regime Change in Syria
On September 15, 2006, Silvia Cattori interviewed Jürgen Cain Külbel, a "former criminal investigator of the GDR, who became a journalist after the reunification of Germany." 

According to Külbel:


 * "After September 11, 2001, [Ghadry] saw the time had come to help his far off homeland 'with economic and political reforms in order to obtain democracy, prosperity and freedom'. That is why he joined the US-Committee on the Present Danger, with members like Newt Gingrich and the former CIA boss James Woolsey. Under the influence of the events in Lebanon, Ghadry wrote in a newspaper article in February 2005, 'Democracy (in Syria) will remain an illusionary dream as long as the USA government is unwilling to publicly support and decently finance the reforms. A White House meeting with a democratic Syrian leader could send a clear message towards Damascus that changes are on their way.'


 * "By the end of March his prayers had already been answered by Elizabeth Cheney, daughter of the vice president and the person responsible for Near East affairs at the State Department. Together with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, she at once installed the 'Middle East Partnership Initiative' (MEPI), which under the mask of 'economic, political and educational reforms' contributes monies to opposition forces in the Arabian world. In 2003 alone, 100 million dollars flowed. The 36-year old hardliner led an 'unofficial' meeting in Washington, where Farid Ghadry took part with his 'Syrian opposition'. Ghadry’s crew, all US-based dissidents and united back then under the umbrella organization the 'Syrian Democratic Coalition' (SDC), discussed with officials from the vice president’s office, the Pentagon and the National Security Council, how the 'regime in Damascus could be weakened' and how to 'prove criminal conduct by Syrian officials'. After the talks, Ghadry, who was pushing for the US president to lean on Damascus personally, summed it up by saying that the call for democracy in Syria 'is being taken very seriously at the highest level of the Bush administration'. He was going to 'work closely with the US administration and the EU' from his end so that 'Syria’s oppressive Baath-regime' could be toppled. However, Ghadry, who was closely cooperating with Abdelnour, disappeared from the scene after he lied to the European Parliament and was dispossessed by his own party for 'dubious conduct'."

In the March 26, 2005, Washington Post, Robin Wright and Glenn Kessler reported that "new State Department 'democracy czar' Elizabeth Cheney, brought together senior administration officials from Vice President Cheney's office, the National Security Council and the Pentagon and about a dozen prominent Syrian Americans, including political activists, community leaders, academics and an opposition group, a senior State Department official said.

"The opposition group comes from the Syria Reform Party, a small U.S.-based Syrian organization often compared to the Iraqi National Congress led by former exile Ahmed Chalabi ... which led the campaign to oust former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein," Wright and Kessler wrote.

"Ghadry said the Syrian opposition was encouraged by the 'open and constructive' meeting, which was attended by key players in the administration's democracy policy such as John Hannah from Cheney's office, Robert Danin [sic; see below] from the National Security Council and the Pentagon's David Schenker", Wright and Kessler wrote. "Some U.S. analysts and other Syrian Americans warned that the Syrian Reform Party and its allies are unrepresentative and too small to have any impact. ... 'Its membership is extremely thin and is not taken seriously. It's almost unheard-of in Syria,' said Murhaf Jouejati, director of George Washington University's Middle East Studies Program."

However, word had leaked out in 2003 about Ghadry's meetings with State Department officials. At the November 18, 2003, U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing, Adam Ereli, Deputy Spokesman, was asked whether Ghadry, "a Syrian-American", who, "along with a number of other Syrians, held two-day meetings over here, opposition meetings for the Syrian opposition" and had "conversations" at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (also see speeches below) and "other places", had met with officials at the State Department and whether the State Department was encouraging Syrian opposition.

Mention of Ghadry's meet-ups with Elizabeth Cheney at the World Economic Forum and elsewhere can also be found here, here, and here. Also see Iran-Syria Operations Group.

Ghadry reported via an August 31, 2005, RPS news release that he had met the day before with Michael Scott Doran, Director of Policy at the National Security Council regarding Baschar al-Assad's upcoming arrival in New York for the United Nations World Summit "and the day most of the pro-Syrian Lebanese ex-intelligence officers were detained for questioning in Lebanon." Discussions, Ghadry wrote, "centered around the Human Rights situation in Syria and specifically the release of Riad Seif from prison as well as all the other prisoners of conscience languishing in Syrian jails under abhorring and inhumane conditions" and the "importance of pressuring the Assad regime to allow the Atassi Forum, a pro-democracy group, to conduct business free from intimidation and harassment." Additionally, Ghardry wrote, he had "also discussed the anticipated Syrian National Conference to take place soon in Europe that would unite all the opposition political parties and figures."

In September 2005, Ghadry reported via USA TODAY's Barbara Slavin that he and Doran "discussed the 'transition from an autocracy to a democracy and why a transitional parliament is an important element' of that change." This was Ghadry's "second meeting with U.S. officials," Slavin wrote, as Ghadry had met with the State Department in March 2005 "to discuss Syria's future."


 * Note that, although Ghadry had met with State Department official Elizabeth Cheney in 2003, long before March 2005, the March 2005 meeting referenced here is most likely the same as that mentioned above by Wright and Kessler.

"Ghadry is proposing to set up a provisional parliament-in-exile to negotiate a Bremer-less' transition out of Baathism. He is anxious not to repeat what many think to be the errors of Iraq, namely backing a ruling minority into a corner: he would allow the Alawites to remain in the armed forces pending a new democratic constitution," Dean Godson wrote in the September 10, 2005, Times Online'' (UK).

"His party claims to have offices in 18 countries, including an underground office in Syria, and operates a Cyprus-based radio station that broadcasts into Syria," Slavin wrote. 

Kenneth Katzman, a "Middle East expert at the Congressional Research Service, told Slavin that "Appropriations bills for the fiscal year that begins in October promote democracy in Syria" and that a "House version allocates as much as $1.5 million; the Senate version does not specify an amount."

At the end of December 2005, Ghadry met at the residence of Richard Perle in a suburb of Washington, DC, with Ahmed Chalabi, who is "often accused of seducing the [Bush] administration with false intelligence into invading Iraq," earning himself the reputation of being Syria's Ahmed Chalabi, H.D.S Greenway reported in the December 31, 2005, ''Boston Globe.

Külbel continued:


 * "Everybody thought [Ghadry] was out of business, but then he popped up again. Between June 16 and 18, 2006, the Beaver Creek (Colorado) World Forum of the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) took place. As is commonly known, this was supposedly where the American-Israeli air strike on Iran was planned. Moreover, Cheney gave the green light to Israel’s former Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was present there, for the latest war of aggression against Lebanon. Included among the 64 members of the AEI conference were Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and other members of the Bush administration. And at this conference Cheney also met with Farid Ghadry. That’s certainly not a good sign."

In a June 19, 2006, RPS press release, Ghadry reported that he had met with Vice President Dick Cheney on June 17, 2006, while attending AEI's World Forum conference in Beaver Creek, Colorado. Ghadry reported that he "took the opportunity to convey to Vice President Cheney the situation and aspirations of Syria's growing democratic opposition" and "urged the United States to increase its support for democracy and human rights in Syria, and stressed in particular the importance of vigorously defending these activists inside Syria who have recently been the target of a systematic and brutal crackdown by the Assad regime."

Campaign Contributions & Political Capital
Ghadry has made campaign contributions to Ileana Ros Lehtinen (R-FL), who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives as Chair of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia, and Eliot Engel (D-NY), who has served on the same House Subcommittee, for several years. (See below.)

Ros-Lehtinen and Engel have "spearheaded the anti-Syrian legislation in congress." 

Engel introduced the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003&mdash;intended "To halt Syrian support for terrorism, end its occupation of Lebanon, stop its development of Weapons of Mass Destruction, cease its illegal importation of Iraqi oil and illegal shipments of weapons and other military items to Iraq, and by so doing hold Syria accountable for the serious international security problems it has caused in the Middle East, and for other purposes."&mdash;to the House of Representatives on April 12, 2003. Ros-Lehtinen was a co-sponsor. The law was signed by President George W. Bush and became Public Law No: 108-175 on December 12, 2003.

On June 7, 2006, Ghadry made a statement and provided comments before the Subcommittee. See George Ajjan and Joshua M. Landis for commentary on the hearing.

Contributions
Beginning in 2004, Ghadry and members of his family in Maryland have contributed thousands of dollars to political campaigns for Ros-Lehtinen and Engel, as well as Rick Santorum (R-PA). See Federal Election Commission records here, as well as the following:


 * According to Rockville, Maryland, "Political Contributions by Individuals", on September 10, 2004, "Ghadry, Farid (Stoney Investments/Businessman), (Zip code: 20853)" contributed $1000 to ENGEL FOR CONGRESS.
 * On November 1, 2004, Ghadry contributed an additional $1,000 to Engel's campaign.
 * According to Potomac, Maryland, "Political Contributions by Individuals", on October 10, 2004, "Ghadry, Farid N. Mr. (Stoney Inv./Businessman), (Zip code: 20854)" contributed $2000 to ROS-LEHTINEN FOR CONGRESS.

Address
The Reform Party of Syria's address is in the Mills Building at 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W., Suite 400, owned by PreferredOffices, located "right next to The White House and The Old Executive Office Building." The "suite" offers furnished private offices, meeting rooms, audio and web conferencing, a self-service business center, high speed Internet access and wireless connectivity, administrative and technical office support, and reception services. 

Contact Information
Reform Party of Syria 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. Suite 400 Washington DC 20004 Website: http://www.reformsyria.org/ Email: info AT reformsyria.com

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * democratization
 * Iran-Syria Operations Group
 * Iranian Directorate
 * Middle East Partnership Initiative
 * Office of Iranian Affairs
 * regime change in Syria

Articles & Commentary about Farid N. Ghadry
This section includes Testimony & Speeches by Farid Ghadry, Interviews with Farid Ghadry, and Profiles of Farid Ghadry.